A city in Florida will no longer hire employees who smoke cigarettes

In Delray, smokers need not apply
It's official. If you puff, you can't work — at least in Delray Beach.

The City Commission is expected to make official today a non-smoker policy that took effect Monday. The city will no longer hire employees who regularly use tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, snuff or pipes.

Smokers can cost a company or government agency an average of $12,000 a year in health and disability-related costs.

The City Commission, except for Commissioner Angeleta Gray, agreed to move forward with the policy in July, saying that in tough budget times this was an easy way to save money and the right thing to do in terms of promoting healthy lifestyles among city employees.

Employees hired before Oct. 1 are exempt from the policy, but the city encourages all employees to take advantage of several smoking cessation classes offered throughout the year.

Tony Marino wrote:What a bunch of baloney. Why don't they just put smokers in a Pillary and publicly flog them? ...

Shhh! Someone in Florida will try that next.

As anti-smoking as I am, this seems excessive and quite narrowly defined. What about obese ppl who regularly eat at Micky Ds? Have they run the numbers to see how much ppl on high fat diets cost in health benefits? Someone may be able to challenge this in court. Luckily Florida also has too many hungry lawyers so the verdict may still be out on this.